Page:Appleton's Guide to Mexico.djvu/224

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CITIES AND ROUTES OF TRAVEL.

EXCURSIONS AROUND THE CAPITAL.

We would advise the tourist to leave his trunk at some hotel in the City of Mexico, and make short trips in all directions.

The best excursions are as follows:

1. From Mexico to Celaya via Mexican Central Railroad, and return via Maravatio and Toluca. This route is described in Sections IV and V.

2. To the Pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan. Distance, 25 miles.

Take the morning train to the station of the same name on the Mexican Railway, and walk or drive to the pyramids, about two miles distant. The larger one is dedicated to the Sun, and the other is called the pyramid of the Moon. An extensive view may be had from the summit of the former. The valley of Mexico is clearly seen, and in the distant south the Nevado de Toluca is visible. (See chapter on ruins for a complete description of the teocallis.) There are no hotel accommodations at San Juan Teotihuacan. A bad fondita may be found in the town, but the traveler is recommended to carry provisions with him from the capital, and return by the afternoon train.

3. From Mexico to Pachuca. Distance, 57 miles.

Pachuca contains some of the oldest mines in the Republic. Many of them were worked long before the Spanish Conquest. The town lies in the State of Hidalgo, and is reached by rail from the City of Mexico to Irolo, and thence by tramway. (Hotel, San Carlos.) There is a governmental school of practical mining here. The population of Pachuca is about 13,000, of which 5,000 are miners, and the altitude, as measured by Humboldt, is 8,150 feet. A great many Cornishmen are employed here, although this mining district is one out of a very few in which European or American miners have been introduced. Pachuca contains about one hundred and fifty mines, and Real del